Georgian Style

Georgian Style, neoclassical style of architecture and interior design, popular in Britain during the reigns of the first four Georges, or from about 1715 to 1820. The style developed from the Roman Palladian style (see Palladio, Andrea) used by the 17th-century English architect Inigo Jones, and was largely employed in domestic architecture and in planned sections of towns, such as the Adelphi section of London designed by the 18th-century Scottish-English architect Robert Adam, the Circus and the Royal Crescent built by the English architects John Wood the Elder and John Wood the Younger in the resort town of Bath, and the whole of New Town in Edinburgh. Among the finest examples of the style used for a public building in the second half of the 18th century is Somerset House, London, designed by the English architect Sir William Chambers. The Customs House, the Four Courts, and other Georgian buildings that give Dublin its 18th-century character were designed by the English architect James Gandon. The style was superseded in England by the Greek and Gothic revivals of the 19th century. In colonial North America, the influence of the Georgian style is evident in very few buildings before the American Revolution. By 1785, however, in the newly formed United States, the Georgian style had become extremely popular in a native version called the Federal style. This evolved into a monumental neoclassical style exemplified by Thomas Jefferson's elegant designs (1817-1826) for the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. This version of the Georgian style remained popular for public buildings in the U.S. well into the 20th century. See also American Art and Architecture; Neoclassical Art and Architecture.